I am an agent in NJ trying to build REO business and would appreciate any suggestions or help I can get. I am a single mom of three who solely supports three children so I have no time nor can afford to make mistakes. Otherwise, my kids don't eat. LOL.Can anyone tell me if I am wasting my time with Ocwen? Do they pay? Are they slow payers and is there any lsiting potential in NJ with them..
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I had started performing BPO's for Ocwen back in 2003. I stopped doing BPOs for them because I had not received any listings and I began focusing my attention on other companies. Just recently, I started receiving listings from them. They do pay you 1.5 % but also a $700 management fee. They will reimburse you for your upfront expenses in a timely manner. You do not have to front for C4K. They will write the check directly to the occupant. I have had no issues with them.
I can't say that they are bad or good, I can just tell you my experience with them. I did about 10 bpo's for them and received 3 listings which all sold in the first week do to their agressive pricing. My BPO's came out way higher than what they actually wanted me to list them for. Getting reimbursed from them was next to impossible since I think that nobody in their right mind knows what the proper way is to submit them in their system. I was able to get reimbursed when they needed to close off their files, but the bad thing is, you need to have your reimbursements (copies of checks, invoices and photos) ready to email to them so that you can email them within the 24 hours they give you. I was fortunate that my commissions were at 2.5% and then down to 2% from the beginning as this was just about 2 years ago. If you can get some business from them, then go for it. I currently do not work with them anymore except for an occasional BPO.
Barbara, someone I know contacted a power reo broker in my area and asked how she could get into the REO game. The first thing the broker asked her was "do you have any children?" The agent told the broker that she did and that she was a single mom. The broker told her not to get involved in doing REO's because she will be sacrificing her children and her time with her kids. The agent went on to get involved in listing REO's and yes, the kids are being sacriced for the AM's. You will be up til 4:00am some nights and get very stressed. There are many banks that are hiring agents to do all different kinds of work that pay good money. You can check out "Chase bank". When you go to the careers section there should be a place where you can type in the letters REO. I found many banks hiring agents for different things that won't take you away from your kids.
As far as Ocwen, I was an agent with them. It was great. Once you know the system it's easy. The REO's were rolling in good and over night they stopped. Ocwen in my area opened their own real estate company and hired a local broker to put all the listings on the MLS for two counties. This took away the pay for hundreds of listing agents. They didn't tell the agents that they weren't going to give them listings anylonger, instead they sent an email telling the agents to register their buyers on their new website. In other words, the listing agents were now buyer's agents. They have a preferred agent network and you can only get on if you know someone. They also sent out an email that they were reducing the bpo pay by $5.00.
I just got three orders from them today. I have been on their system for about five months and the emails are starting to come in for BPOs. They did ask for my bank information and account number for direct deposits. So I am hopeful that they will pay on time.
In our area, (N. California) rumour has it one agent is getting all of Ocwen's listings, which is hard to believe. I just got a listing from them, a re-assign. they do pay, but you have to deal with the people on the other side of the Pacific, which is OK once you get used to it. they just switched platforms to altisource.com
I had a terrible experience with OCwen, they always fought your reimbursements and screwed one of my contractors out of $5,000. They said I had to pay him to keep their business and when I said no they black listed me and took away the few crummy listings I had with them. Be careful with them, it is really hard to deal with a company where you are talking to someone in India all the time.
What I meant when I said " If they only knew," was that if agents only knew that doing massive amounts of bpo's to get reo's is not a good way to get them in my opinion. I'm not saying it's impossible but these bpo mills really love the fact that agents think that and they definitely capitalize on it. I think that doing bpo's is the slowest track to getting listings. While your out there spending all your time doing the bpo's, agents like me are going directly to the people who make the decisions of who gets the listings. Networking will get you more results than doing bpo's. The only problem with that is you have to know what your talking about when you get to that decision maker. That's the main dilemma. Also, you have to have a team and a nice system in place or you'll only be able to efficiently handle a few listings at a time. In my area I see the kings/queens hiring several agents dedicated to only doing bpo's. Their agents are doing at least 100 a week and making good money but the only one that will really benefit is the reo broker and he/she would never do even one. That's the one way bpo's will get you listings. While all their agents are doing the bpo's the reo broker is out there networking with the decision makers. So how do you get started then? That's the big question and there's really not one good answer. If you never had an reo listing and only a few bpo's under your belt then I honestly wouldn't even pursue that path right now because banks want results and to deal with people that have proven track records. There's too much on the line right now to take a risk on an unproven agent especially when the AM's are getting rated on their results. With all that being said, it's not impossible. I haven't even been doing bpo's for a year and I currently have about 40 listings, which is small potatoes. I have been licensed for 5 years and when I started I was trying to do traditional real estate. I didn't succeed at that and after about two years I gave it up and went corporate. After about a year of that I was so miserable that I had to come back and give it another shot but this time with reo's and short sales. I started last september as an assistant for an established reo agent who had about 20 listings. He was drowning in work and was late on all his tasks. I knew how to do bpo's from my previous years and I made a deal with him. I would do all the work for every reo and in turn I would get 30% of each sale. I knew nothing about reo's except how to do a bpo but let me tell you I learned real fast. Shortly after that I got caught up on every property and sold every one the bank didn't reassign. He made the mistake of letting me deal direct with the AM's and they noticed a drastic improvement in the timeliness and quality of work. He thought he had it made because he had this assistant who did everything and he didn't have to be bothered at all and then he would collect 70%. I got fed up with the way things were going and one day the Am assigned us a new listing and I told them I would only be involved if they assigned it to me only. They did and ever since then I have never looked back. I'm definitely not rolling in the dough yet but i'm on my way. I have all the tools in place and a great team. We have 40 listings but each one gets split equally 3 ways. It's less money but now we can handle amy workload. Also doing it that way we're able to achieve great results, submit everything on time, and there's 3 people to split the expenses. Those results are what is opening many doors for us and by this time next year our inventory should triple. So the moral is that if I was going the bpo route I would still just be doing bpo's today. Partner up, be an assistant, and think outside the box. Do some research and find the shortest route to your end goal. Fake it until you make it is a very applicable phrase to this situation. That Am never had an idea I have never sold a single reo prior to working with them. Every new client I get now has no idea I have been doing this for less then a year. If you can talk the lingo and back it up with results than you will make it in REO's. I know how hard it is to break into this side of the business and how lucky I got. For that reason i'll do whatever I can to help any of you not in my state to try and get started. I'll give anybody direct contact info to AM's for banks/servicers that I work with. I'll tell you what to have in place before you contact them and how to approach them to better your chances of them giving you even a little time of day. I'm not an expert and not even close but most importantly I know what not to do. I have had many opportunites early on that I ruined because I approached it wrong and they saw right through me. I'm not promising any results but I can definitely better your chances. I can get you to the point you would be at after doing several hundred qualty bpo's. Obviously, i'm extremely busy and don't have much time to devote to helping other agents but I do have a little time I can dedicate to help. I would only be able to help agents that I think, after talking to them, would even have a shot of getting any business. I want no money or any type of referral fee. All I need is the satisfaction that I actually helped somebody out and knowing that they broke in because I helped to put them on the right path. I was so lost when I first came back to real estate and all I wanted and needed was a little guidance that nobody was willing to give to me because all they cared about was themselves and who they can step on to get ahead. That's why I can appreciate forums like this that are out there as a medium for people to help and learn from each other. Of course I would also be open to established agents who want to trade contacts and I don't mean "soft trades." I mean trade where there's formal introductions. I'll show you mine if you show me yours...lol and i'll introduce you to mine if you do the same. SORRY FOR THE LONG POST. I'M HAVING A GREAT FEW MONTHS AND NOW I WANT TO START GIVING BACK. GOOD LUCK TO ALL!!!
George, I service the Chicago area. I've been in the business quite a while, but over the last 2-3 years I began focusing on REO. I've had a few listings from about 3 or 4 companies and am doing BPOs with 'mills' (my catch phrase for slow listings in 'mills pay the bills'!). However, it's been a little slow lately,and trying to break in with new companies have been next to impossible. any info you could pass on would be appreciated!1
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As far as Ocwen, I was an agent with them. It was great. Once you know the system it's easy. The REO's were rolling in good and over night they stopped. Ocwen in my area opened their own real estate company and hired a local broker to put all the listings on the MLS for two counties. This took away the pay for hundreds of listing agents. They didn't tell the agents that they weren't going to give them listings anylonger, instead they sent an email telling the agents to register their buyers on their new website. In other words, the listing agents were now buyer's agents. They have a preferred agent network and you can only get on if you know someone. They also sent out an email that they were reducing the bpo pay by $5.00.
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